1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a method for playing streaming data, an electronic device and an information storage media for storing a method for playing the streaming data, and more particularly to a method for playing streaming data in a client having a limited memory resource, an electronic device capable of playing the streaming data without being restricted by the memory resource, and an information storage media for storing the method for playing the streaming data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the modern life, downloading multimedia data from web sites for watching or listening has become one part of the leisure life. At present, several streaming techniques have been developed so that the user can play the multimedia streaming data stored in the network server.
Two main streaming techniques include a progressively download technique and a real-time streaming technique. The progressively download technique is to download a part of the multimedia streaming data from the network so that the user can play the downloaded part at first, and then the other part of the multimedia streaming data can be sequentially downloaded. In the progressively download technique, when the multimedia streaming data has been completely played, the multimedia streaming data has been completely downloaded to the client so that the user can play the data again in the future. The difference between the real-time streaming technique and the progressively download technique is that the client only can play the multimedia streaming data but cannot store the multimedia streaming data in the client.
When the progressively download technique is utilized to play the multimedia streaming data, a buffer memory has to be configured/programmed in the client to temporarily store the multimedia streaming data. The capacity of the buffer memory has to be larger than or equal to the size of the multimedia streaming data. When the size of the multimedia streaming data is getting larger and larger, the capacity of the buffer memory has to be increased therewith.
If the client has the sufficient available memory resource, for example, if the client is a personal computer or a notebook computer, there is no big problem in the memory resource allocation even if a large buffer memory is needed and configured for the playing of the multimedia streaming data.
Nevertheless, if the client does not has the sufficient available memory resource, for example, if the client is a mobile telephone or a personal digital assistant (PDA) with a connection function, the memory resource allocation in the client may have troubles or even the multimedia streaming data cannot be smoothly played when the large-size multimedia streaming data is to be played.